Jungle By-Ways in India 



sure the beaters doing this, it is always advisable 

 to station at intervals in the line orderlies or peons, 

 or men who can be trusted to see these orders 

 enforced. 



I remember seeing this method of beating 

 carried out with the most perfect precision and 

 success during a Christmas shoot in Eastern 

 Bengal. We were out for what we could get, the 

 main idea being sambhar, barking deer, and jungle- 

 fowl (murghis), with pig if one cared to shoot 

 them, which I did not. My host was a perfect shot, 

 and one of the coolest hands I have met. I had 

 knocked over a sambhar, he a pig or two, and 

 we each had a few birds. The beat was nearing 

 its close, and as I exchanged the rifle for the 

 shot-gun, I glanced up the line to where my friend 

 was stationed. 



As I looked, up went his weapon. Before I 

 heard the report I saw him step sharply back 

 and fire again rapidly at what looked to me to be 

 a dark shadow. Then I saw something black 

 drop at his feet, and his hand went back for his 

 other weapon, and he covered it and fired again. 

 The rifle this time, I remember thinking, but I 

 had not, a notion what the animal was. The beat 

 ended, I saw my friend wave to me ; I went up, 

 and there lay a fine leopard, and he had kiUed it 

 with No. 6. As luck would have it, my friend 

 had his shot-gun in his hand when, without a 

 sound, a fine leopard walked out on to the ride 



